Home for Chanukah
by Atalanta Pendragonne
Summary: A very young Severus spends the holidays with his family.


HOME FOR CHANUKAH  
  
  
  
  
  
Everybody celebrated Christmas. Wizard or Muggle, there was red and green everywhere. Severus was sick of it, he decided, as he boarded the Hogwarts Express on his way home for the winter (he wouldn't even *think* the C-word!) break. He found an empty compartment and tried to get some sleep, to make the ride go quicker.  
  
No such luck. His privacy was disturbed when another first-year entered the compartment. Sev blinked at him... what was his name again? Oh yeah, Remus Lupin. One of those snotty Gryffindors.  
  
"Hey, I hope you don't mind, but the train's pretty full," said Remus, taking the seat across from Sev. "So, do you have any big plans for Christmas?"  
  
Sev glared at him. "I don't do Christmas," he snarled, and looked resolutely out the window.  
  
  
  
The ride to platform 9 3/4 passed in a tense silence. Remus made a few attempts at conversation, but Sev brushed them off coldly. As they disembarked, Sev peered through the crowd, looking for his mother. He was lucky, though. His Uncle Solly was there. Uncle Solly wouldn't make the huge squealing fuss that his mother did. Solomon Snape was a jeweler in Diagon Alley, and when his brother had died, he'd allowed his widow and her young son to move in with him in the flat above the store.  
  
That had been three years ago. Sev had spent three years sleeping on the pull-out sofa in Uncle Solly's tiny living room. His dorm room at Hogwart's was luxurious in comparison. But either way, he was always surrounded by people, people who always wanted something from him, even if it was only his attention.  
  
He caught Uncle Solly's eye and wove his way through the crowd toward him.  
  
"Sev! You look so grown-up, your mother will just kvell. She's been potchkying around in the kitchen all day, making a welcome-home feast for her little Seveleh." He steered them through the crowd. "Just wait until she sees how big her little man is getting!" Solly rubbed his hands together.  
  
  
  
It wasn't long before they were climbing the narrow stairs at the back of Solomon's Mines (Sev thought that was a really dumb name for a jewelry shop, but he never quite dared tell his uncle that). Even the shop was pervaded with the oniony smell of his mother's cooking. Uncle Solly opened the door to the flat and called out, "Hey Esther, look who I found!"  
  
Sev braced himself for the onslaught of maternal affection as his mother dashed from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. "Oh, Seveleh! You look more like your father every day. I could just plotz! One of these days you'll walk in that door and I'll think it's Mordecai come back to me. Come give your mother a hug!"  
  
Sev dutifully embraced his mother, and she gasped in dismay. "So thin you've gotten! Don't they feed yo at that fancy-shmancy school of yours?  
  
"Let the boy breathe, Esther," Solly said. "They're all thin at that age, they grow so fast. You've got some time to feed him up while he's here, anyway."  
  
In a trice, Sev found himself at the kitchen table with a bowl of matzoh ball soup ("just a nosh to tide you over, Seveleh, you've been traveling all day") while his mother bustled about from countertop to stove and back again.  
  
"So, your Tante Judith is coming, and she's bringing Zayde Rosenberg," she said.  
  
"Will cousin Aaron be coming?"  
  
"Oy! Not a word about Aaron, especially to Judith! He married a shiksa. Judith says he's dead to her."  
  
"When the grandchildren start coming, Judith will change her mind," Solly interjected from the living room.  
  
"All these years you've known my sister-in-law, and still you say that? The woman is so stubborn, she can hold a grudge like nobody's business. She still hasn't forgiven that other son of hers for running off with a Muggle--and they left the country, no less!"  
  
"Och, Esther, at least she was Jewish. And Eli says they're very happy in California."  
  
Sev concentrated on his soup. He'd miss Aaron. His older cousin was the only one who never talked down to him.  
  
"Eli! Don't get me started on that no-goodnik brother of mine! If he spent less time gallivanting around the world getting jewels for your shop and more time with Judith and the boys, they would have had more respect for family. The tsures that poor woman has had--"  
  
Oh, no. Not this argument again. Sev wished for something, anything, to stop it.  
  
There was a knock on the door. Well, at least it would stop the argument, but would it be any better?  
  
"Judith! Abraham! Come in, come in!" Sev heard Solly saying at the front door. "Severus! Come say a hello to your Tante and your Zayde!"  
  
Sev dutifully pushed away from the table to greet his aunt and grandfather. Tante Judith looked weary, but it didn't stop her from pinching hs cheeks and demanding a kiss. Zayde Rosenberg was less given to such displays... he gave Sev a firm handshake.  
  
"So, boy, are they teaching you anything worthwhile at that goyische school?"  
  
Tante Judith rolled her eyes. "Oh, let the boy be, Papa Abraham. I went to Hogwarts. It's a good school."  
  
"The boy should be at Daath Yeshiva."  
  
Solly laughed nervously. "Abraham, Daath Yeshiva is closed, remember? Mordecai was in the last graduating class. It was Hogwarts or some Muggle school."  
  
Abraham Rosenberg snorted. "And that would be so bad? At his age, the boy should be reading the Torah. In my day you didn't start with the Quabbalah until you were forty. Sev isn't even old enough for his Bar Mitzvah!"  
  
Esther emerged from the kitchen. "Papa, papa! Please, no more kvetching. It's time to light the menorah, and then I've got us a nice chicken and latkes from Bubbe Leah's recipe."  
  
Zayde Rosenberg looked as if he wanted to say more, but thankfully did not.  
  
The menorah in Uncle Solly's living room was a family heirloom, and no ordinary Muggle candelabra. They clustered around it, and began to chant the blessing.  
  
"Ba-ruch ata, A-do-nai...." the wick of the shamash flared alight.  
  
"E-lo-hei-nu, me-lech ha-o-lam," the first wick blazed,  
  
"a-sher ki-de-sha-nu" the second wick glowed with flame.  
  
Sev fumed that his winter vacation hadn't started until the second night of Chanukah, but sang the blessing along with the rest of his family.  
  
"be-mits-vo tov, ve-tsi-va-nu le-had-lik neir shel Chan-nu-kah.  
  
Ba-ruch ata, A-do-nai E-lo-hei-nu, me-lech ha-o-lam,she-a-sa ni-sim las-a- vo-tei-nu ba-ya-mim ha-heim ba-ze-man ha-zah.  
  
Ba-ruch ata, A-do-nai E-lo-hei-nu, me-lech ha-o-lam, she-he-chya-nu ve-ki- ya-ma-nu ve-hi-gi-a-nu las-man-ha-zeh."  
  
They gazed at the lit menorah for a while.  
  
"Everyone ready for a little something to eat?" asked Esther.  
  
  
  
The winter break seemed to be over in no time. Once more, Sev tried to secure a compartment to himself, and once more, found himself riding with Remus Lupin.  
  
"So, Severus, did you have a nice, uh, holiday?" Remus asked shyly.  
  
"Yeah," Sev smiled. "Yeah, I did." 


End file.
